Culture in North Carolina, United States
Knowing all the cultures we have in the world is almost an impossible task; however, I wanted to know about the culture in North Carolina, at the Southeast of the USA. So I interviewed a friend who lived there and she had the opportunity of sharing with the people of Trinity, a small town at the mountains of Randolph County.
Here are some of the most important facts about their culture:
Food
-They don’t eat a lot of fat foods, they eat a lot of pasta and the food is very spicy. Besides, bread is always served in any meal.
-Every weekend they serve a big breakfast to share with the family
-The most common dishes are: blue berry salad, chicken stew, hot dogs (they are prepared of bread, sausages, and mustard), corndog ( a sausage wrapped with a corn tortilla) and they eat a lot of potato.
Personality
-They are very friendly; however, you need to keep physical distance and avoid invading their space
Customs
-People from the mountains are more punctual than people from the city
-They take a shower in the night, not in the morning
-They don’t care about fashion, they mix colors and styles. However, on Sundays they dress very formal
-Women use a lot of make up
- In the house women cannot use shorts or small blouses because it is considered as a way to attract the man of the house
-People clean the house each one or two weeks
-They don’t show public affection
Religion
-Most of them are Christian or Presbyterians
-The catholic people usually belong to the high class
-The music in the church is not noisy, they just use the piano
-Children stay separate from their parents during the ceremony
-Women cannot use pants to go to the church
-It is not allow to say “Oh my God”, or “Oh my Gosh”; it is considered offensive, so you better say “Oh my Lord”
Education
-All the classrooms must be decorated
-The emphasis of the education is reading and math
-Every teacher must have an assistant.
Finally, one nice tradition that they have is the Desserts Party, which is done on December 24th. Families get together and they prepare a lot of desserts which are eaten during the night. At 11 o’clock they start wrapping the gifts for the kids to open them next morning.
So, that’s part of the culture of people from North Carolina; they differ from Costa Ricans in many aspects; however, there are cultures in which they have some habits that are completely different from ours and we never thought they exist. Let’s check some of them:
ENGLAND
In England they have the Custom of the WELL DRESSING, which is popular all over Derbyshire. The wells are dressed with large framed panels decorated with elaborate mosaic-like pictures made of flower petals, seeds, grasses, leaves, tree bark, berries and moss. Well-dressings are beautiful and delicate and take a lot of work to make; however, they only last for a few days. I like this tradition because is a nice way to decorate the entire city, and whenever each picture needs to be changed, they are ready to put a new one. All the people around the town are ready with a frame for decorating the wells.
On the other hand, they have strange and even dangerous traditions as the CHEESE ROLLING. A round cheese is rolled down a hill chased by competitors. The winner is the first person to grab the cheese. They say that it is a spectacular to watch but hazardous to take part in, because many competitors end up with broken arms and legs. Imagine that!! That will be really funny but it’s incredible how people risk their lives for a cheese!!!!
